robbing banks!!!!!!!

[spanish_lad]

i´ve opened an account with cajasur so that i can pay my mobile fone bill and i went out the other night to la troucha in coin... and the machine there charged me €2.10 to take out €20 of my own money!!!!!


what the hell is going on ? !?!? why do i get charged for it ?!?!??!!

[julian]

i think you answered your own question in your topic title !!!!

[El Cid]

You have to use the right ATM for a free transaction.

If you use one outside a branch of your own bank it will be free and they usually have an arrangement with some other banks.

It should tell you if you are going to be charged.

Sid

[spanish_lad]

You have to use the right ATM for a free transaction.

If you use one outside a branch of your own bank it will be free and they usually have an arrangement with some other banks.

it was a bbva bank machine, my account is cajasur.

It should tell you if you are going to be charged.

Sid

it did, but i had nothing in me pocket, i thought it´d be better not to carry cash, just a card

[El Cid]

In future be more careful which ATM you choose.

There are so many banks in Spain you can't expect them to all agree to make no charges for non-customers.

There is a similar problem in the UK particularly with ATMs that are not installed in banks.

Sid

[peteroldracer]

You were unlucky to choose a BBVA machine, as in my experience they are the best at overcharging! We had a BBVA account (when we didn't know better!), and knowing that a stage payment to our builder was due soon, brought over a Bank Draft for some 43,000 Euros and paid it in in Velez-Malaga. A few days later when we had returned to England I got a furious phone call from our builder, saying that the bank had charged him 700+ Euros because the cheque to him had bounced! Banks here apparently charge 2 per cent of any cheques declared as "insufficient funds".
It was impossible to sort out from the UK, in Spanish, so I flew back with a further draft, opened an account with Cajamar locally with it (where our bulder also banked) and tried to find out what had gone on.
BBVA had registered that our draft was for 43.00 Euros - not 43,000 - so had bounced the builders cheque and Cajamar charged him for presenting a bouncer. On going in to BBVA they said 'oh yes, we realised a few days later when our accounts would not balance' but had done nothing to let me know what had happened, not contacted Cajamar, not refunded the charge that our builder had incurred - in other words just ignored the mistake, waiting until someone kicked up about it. After an argument, they did agree to sort it out and did so, but refused to apologise saying these things happen!!
We told them we wanted to close the account there and then, but they even refused to do that, saying the balance was over a certain figure, and they could not do anything for some days - as if they didn't have enough cash in the safe! Their attitude throughout was arrogant and unhelpful, from the manager to the "customer services manager" (sic) to the clerk on the till - totally different to the charming and helpful folk in Cajamar.
You have been warned.......

[Babby]

Cajas.... Cajamar, Cajasur, Unicaja, etc. are like the equivalent of building societies in the UK and are generally cheaper. BBVA is one of the big banks and banks will always charge more. You could go into your bank and ask which cashpoints you can use without any charge. We have an account with Cajamadrid and we don´t get charged commission at any Servired points.

[Solysombra]

Spanish_lad, sorry to highjack your thread but, on the subject of robbing b#"¤ard banks does anyone here have a clue what would be a reasonable charge to transfer approx €210,000 from England to Spain, thanks

[Alan-LaCala]

what would be a reasonable charge to transfer approx €210,000 from England to Spain,

A reasonable charge would be nil. Contact your bank and tell them that if they charge you, you will take your business elsewhere.

It worked for me with Solbank.

Alan

[Solysombra]

At first I was livid about this but now I just think it's so ridiculous I can only laugh.
Recently I have been negotiating to buy a house from a bank ( a bankruptcy snatchback) a price has been agreed and I will be travelling to Marbella next week to complete, however, the bank in question have attempted to charge me €1850 to transfer an amount of money from the UK to Spain, to be fair the person dealing with this is about 17 and extremely full of himself, but sadly lacking in common sense, I had a seriously heated argument with him until I pointed out that the current owner of the property was the bank and if they tried to charge me for the transfer then the sale would not go through,after a very pregnant pause (about 5 minutes) the manager came on the line to say that naturally there would be no transfer charges, what have I done here??
I forgot to mention That I have been using this bank since 1993

[anyroads]

Personally I think Barclays is the best bank in the world.

Anyroads

[Solysombra]

On the subject of banks, I heard that there is a sperm bank in Mãlaga that pays €100 per deposit, when I think of the money thats's slipped through my fingers

[rafiki]

when I think of the money thats's slipped through my fingers

<splutter> I just choked and sprayed the monitor with red wine over that one!!

[Solysombra]

Glad I made someone laugh, good one though eh

[Chalky]

Spanish_lad, sorry to highjack your thread but, on the subject of robbing b#"¤ard banks does anyone here have a clue what would be a reasonable charge to transfer approx €210,000 from England to Spain, thanks

If you use an agent such as Currencies Direct to do the transfer you should get a good rate of exchange and no charges from your Spanish bank. Shop around the agents for rates and charges - with that sum of money involved they'll be keen to get your business!

[petert74]

I have to disagree with the earlier comments about Barclays!!
Without doubt the worse banking experience i have every had is with Barclays Spain.
As soon as they realise your a non local they start to take the P@@@
The manager even tried to switch our account to a special "english" account for english people at a charge of 60 euros a month.
We now have an acount that we dont use and pay charges every month for nothing.
Barclay charge us to use the cash machine AT OUR OWN BRANCH.
Everything is charged and Im sick of it!!!!!!
Unlike the Uk I now deal in cash which is not great but at least it gives me the satisfaction of not being ripped off as much!!!

[masterob]

petert74 said

We now have an account that we don't use and pay charges every month for nothing.

Apologies if I am missing something but why don't you close it? There are plenty of Banks here to chose from and don't treat you in the way you describe.

[blondie]

i also recieved a letter from my bank - bankinter -the other day saying that their charges to maintain my account are 30 euros, but it fails to mention how periodic this is, and i fear (but dont know yet) that they are going to say monthly, in which case i will definately be closing up and moving, even if its 3 monthly i probably will as well, why should they get away with such fraudulent actions when they dont actually have to do anything to maintain their accounts??

[Beachcomber]

Without doubt the worse banking experience i have every had is with Barclays Spain.

In defence of Barclays generally I have to say that I have been banking with them for nearly forty years in the UK but that the only connection they have with Barclays in Spain is the name and corporate identity.

I wouldn't bank with Barclays in Spain even in the unlikely event that they offered me free banking for life!! I agree with Petert74 that Barclays Spain must be the worst bank in the whole country.

[Colinm]

Recently received a mail from Cajamar (my bank in Spain).
It said 'Thankyou for being our customer. We will not be charging you for maintaining your account or for transactions'
Now I havnt made any transfers to see if it applies to transfers, however my transfers would be in Euro anyway.


If anyone would like to try and transfer say €5000 into my account, then I will willingly pay the charges (if any) and I promise to let you know what happens!